Resident unhappy with repaving

A Burlington resident is asking the city to repave the portion of her driveway below the sidewalk, as well as those of her two neighbours.

Andrea Young has lived in her freehold townhouse on Headon Road, just south of Upper Middle Road, for three years.

The resurfacing of a portion of Headon Road south of Upper Middle Road this summer included some new curbing.

As a result of the curbing, sections of three driveways below the sidewalk – called ‘aprons’ by roadwork staff – in Young’s townhouse block were cut back and repaved.

Young said she is unhappy with the job the city did repaving the portions of the three aprons.

She said she is worried the city’s work could cause the value of her townhouse to drop.

The city has told Young her apron will not be repaved.

“Now, there’s this big seam in my driveway, and in my neighbours’ driveways as well, that is basically lowering the value of my home, and they are not doing anything about it, even though they ripped it up,” she told the Post. “If I want to sell my home, they’ve essentially lowered the value of my house by patchworking this job when they should have repaved from the sidewalk down. It looks terrible.”

Young said the resurfacing of the road, curbing, new sod and reinstallation of interlocking brick beside her and her neighbours’ driveways looks fine.

She said she is simply unhappy with the apron repaving. Young said she hasn’t obtained a quote to repair it out of her own pocket.

“If I was to sell my house right now, I’m a single parent, I’ve just redone my roof and a number of things on my home, I appreciate the work has to be done on the roads but it should not affect me negatively financially,” she said. “Should I spend $500 to get the bottom of my driveway done because it looks crappy? No.”

Jeff Black, manager of field services with the city’s roads and parks maintenance department, told the Post it is function over aesthetics when it comes to consideration for repaving aprons a second time.

As long as the seam is good and is not collecting water, an apron will not be repaved, he said.

“What happens when we replace with asphalt, we will only do the portion that we removed,” Black said. “This is standard practice and acceptable in the construction industry to have old asphalt versus new asphalt, providing it is a good join and there are no areas for water to accumulate.”

He said with time, the hues of the two portions of driveway will likely become less noticeable.

“We recognize that the contrast in colour that she (Young) may be seeing right now is certainly there,” he said. “In time, the asphalt will fade to that grey colour and it will be a bit more consistent in colour.”

Black said he couldn’t recall a recent incident where an apron had been repaved due to a resident’s concern.

“We are not in the practice of replacing the entire apron, nor do we have the budget to do that in so many locations across the city,” he said. “We do get calls and there is an expectation from some residents that might be higher than others. What we do is reiterate that we can’t possibly repave all of the aprons.”